


At Opposite Ends

by Lord_English



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Body Swap, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-11
Updated: 2011-08-11
Packaged: 2017-10-22 12:10:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_English/pseuds/Lord_English
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their blood were as different as much as they were the same, but in the end it made no difference.</p><p>Warning: Image heavy, with bloody, graphic images! Proceed at your own risk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At Opposite Ends

_  
  
_

 

Unlike most lowbloods, he was never shy about wearing his own blood on his sleeve.

No, it was more than that. He flaunted it, cutting himself in front of his followers as a demonstration of shamelessness. He splattered it on banners, flags, on the foreheads of his undying devotees. He let it soak his clothes until they were so vivid you could see him from miles away.

And she did. She knew the rebellion would be a failure since it had started, but that did not stop her from keeping him alive enough to see what he was capable of. She had set the stage, and he charged right onto it and put on quite a show as she sat back in her tower and watched on. She watched the horizon fill with bands of yellows and browns and maroons and waited as they inched closer to her base like a falling curtain. It was not until the final act that she would put an end to everything.

An impressive sight, orchestrated entirely by him, and it even amused her to think that all of this would evaporate the moment she set her foot down.

But he put up more of a fight than she had anticipated. He was quick and very clever, and too soon had he ended up putting a sickle to her throat. Savage and steadfast, down to the very core. Irises that sweltered a deep red, lines of blood running across his face. Charming. It only made her smile widen.

He thought he’d finally won, but that was far from the truth.

 

 

She had always been the one in control.

 

 _  
_

Bright, vibrant red. It was unlike the greens and blues she’d watched pool onto her floor in the past. His blood was intense and violent, enticing.

And it was the only blood of its kind.

 

 _  
_

_  
_   
You s)(ould feel lucky. You're the first gutterblood to )(ave t)(e privilege of even being in the same room as me. You've kept me amused for quite some time. But I'm afraid t)(is is w)(ere it all ends.   
_  
  
  
_

She had always been the one in control, now even more so than before.

Upon his capture she had scheduled his execution to take place in four lunar cycles. Her subjects would have wanted that. She ordered her guards to take prisoners, for the purpose of having him watch each and every one of his followers be executed before him. See if that makes him squirm.

It excited her more than anything. Up until then, he was hers.

 

\---

 

 _  
  
_

 

Just when she thought she had won, the tables had to turn on her.

Her mind swam out of control when she realized what she had become. Perhaps it was punishment from above, putting her in her rightful place. But she knew everything she had done was in favor of upholding the peace, her pride. She didn’t deserve this. The empresses before her would have done the same thing, capture this troll and make him suffer for threatening to destroy the natural balance of their world.

But she had been living on the opposite side of the coin for too long. She had never seen what the lowest of the low and to live like, yet her she was, in the body of the troll at the absolute bottom of the caste system. She found it difficult to look in the reflective pane without biting back the lump of pity forming in her throat.

Scars, bruises, gauged out skin, festering and rotting beyond hope. The Sufferer had been damned since the day he had hatched, yet he had still been able to make it this far.

What kept him going? What it his hatred for everything she was that drove him? Or was it something else?

There was no point in asking. She was trapped in the body of someone fated to die, and there was nothing she could do but sit and wait.

 

 _  
_

It wasn’t long before he got to see him again. He was as unfortunate as she was, trapped in her body as she had been trapped in his. Coming down to the dungeons to see her, wearing that scornful expression on _her_ face. But it wasn’t an expression that conveyed his desire to kill her, not like before. He had appeared in order to reason with her.

  
I AM NOT GOING TO KILL YOU YET. THIS ISN'T HOW I WANTED THINGS TO END.  


  
You’re a fool. Keeping me alive, just to preserve your own body?  


  
IT’S MORE THAN THAT. AND WHAT IS IT TO YOU? IT’S OKAY THAT I HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OVER YOU?  


  
Victory is yours, Sufferer.  


 

With the Empress’ body he had already won. He was the most powerful troll on Alternia. He could abolish the caste system in a heartbeat and free all of his followers. What’s more, his worst enemy was trapped in the body of a revolutionary destined to die the next night. She was cornered and shackled to his cell, weaponless, completely at his mercy.

Yet he still wouldn’t follow through and kill her.

 

T)(en w)(at do you suppose we do? By nig)(tfall I’ll be dead.

…I WILL CANCEL YOUR EXECUTION AND TAKE YOU AS MY SLAVE.

)(ow bold.

IT’S THE ONLY ACTION WE CAN TAKE WITHOUT SEEMING SUSPICIOUS. I WANT MY OWN BODY BACK, AND I’LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET IT. YOUR POWER MAY BE LIMITLESS, BUT IT’S AN INSIPID IRON GRIP THAT I SEE UNFIT TO BE USED BY ANYONE. I’LL BE DOING THINGS MY WAY.

Your perseverance astounds me. But remember, w)(en you get your own body back, you’ll be t)(e first to die.

I'M UNDETTERED BY YOUR THREAT. MY FOLLOWERES ARE STILL ALIVE, AND I WILL KEEP THEM ALIVE UNTIL MY RETURN. YOU’LL HAVE NO CHANCE. AS FOR OUR CURRENT SITUATION, I’LL SEE IF THE GRAND HIGHBLOOD HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. IF THAT VOODOO OBSESSED FUCK UP CAN PROVIDE A SOLUTION, THEN THINGS WILL GO ON AS IF NONE OF THIS HAD EVER HAPPENED. BUT IN ORDER TO DO THAT, I REQUEST YOUR COOPERATION.

 _  
_

Cooperation. That was what they needed if she wanted to break this ridiculous stalemate. But she would be the one to emerge victorious.

And he was the fool. He either had too much pride or was impossibly too dense to realize it. Once he got his body back, he would be the first to die, unless he honestly thought he could still win.

All of this, just to protect everything he stood for.

 

\---

 

 _  
_

He filled in his new role adequately. He managed to cancel the execution and take her as his slave immediately, without the ceremony. As his slave, she was never to be seen in public again. She kept quiet and was locked in what used to be her own Imperial Suite with nothing but silence to accompany her. But it gave her time to think. He was out dealing with his new lifestyle but was focusing even more on trying to get their bodies back. He was never really keen on humouring the Grand Highblood into accepting a visit from the Empress.

Part of his role was to be merciless towards lowbloods. He avoided it as well as he could. Instead of killing off the remaining rebels in the Empress’ domain he ordered them chased out into the countryside without question. He ignored protests from the council, and in return they pointed their attention at the Empress’ new slave, whispering of suspicion.

If only they knew the truth.

It wasn’t very often that he came with her when she went to visit his followers in the dungeons. He had briefed her extensively on who was who in order to make conversations with them to seem more natural. She had spoken to one lowblood in particular who they had praised as the prophet of their time. He had been the one who had foreseen the Sufferer’s downfall; had his eyes gauged out upon capture, removing what he called his vision twofold. He had a fluctuating mood and was an oddity all on his own, and she felt somewhat lenient towards him for unexplained reasons. Perhaps it was the way he spoke to his captured leader, expressing pity for him in one moment and bursting out in anger towards the Empress the next.

But she withdrew. It wasn’t in her place to get attached.

She knew he only let her see them so he can know for himself that they were doing fine.

At the end of each night they sat on opposite ends of the Empress’ suite, talking. Of the future, what to expect, the unexpected. Or degrading each other for the sake of it.

But she learned to appreciate these moments. Just facing him in the dark, talking to a mirror image of herself while speaking with a voice all too rough to be her own. What was hers was his, and his was hers. He was so close she heard his heart beat in her ear, but at the same time so far his voice was but a mere whisper in the corner of the room. It put such a warped perspective on everything.

It felt intimate in a cold, indirect sort of way.

 _  
_

You know... w)(en it comes down to it all, blood colour doesn’t really make a single difference.

...

W)(at is wit)( t)(at look on your face? I’m complimenting your ideals. W)(at you want isn’t so )(armless, really. W)(ile I was sitting )(ere by myself today, t)(e wound on your c)(est reopened. I watc)(ed your blood run down, all the way down to my toes. I could )(ave sworn I was in my own body again, because in t)(e dark, your blood didn’t look any different from mine. )(ave you ever t)(oug)(t about )(ow similar our blood colour is? T)(ink about it. Maybe you )(ave more power in your genetics t)(an you t)(ink.

WHAT ARE YOU GETTING AT, EMPRESS?

...I've wronged you, Sufferer. We all )(ave. Spending t)(ese past few nig)(ts in your body, I’ve come to realize t)(at you are merely misunderstood because of your differences. And I’ve actually grown to like t)(em. Your blood, your body. Beautifully sickening.

 **  
**

He must have thought she was just saying that play with his mind, to test his mentality. But she wasn’t. His body and blood held more power and appeal than he realized. It was just a matter of twisting the words, convincing the highbloods that he wasn’t the scum of the planet but higher than the Empress herself. Such things took cunning and skill, not brute force.

He wouldn’t have done it. He wouldn’t have been able to. But she was a different story.

 

\---

 

He did not have much luck with the Grand Highblood, who chortled more than he spoke and paid no heed to his inquiry. He returned irritated and empty-handed.

But that did not stop him. He spent days in the Imperial Library trying to find even just recordings on situations similar to theirs. She knew his search would be in vain.

He was holding out foolishly, and she was running out of patience.

She thought up the real solution to their problem.

 

 _  
_

If he couldn’t end it, then she would.

Why...?

Hm? W)(y? W)(y would I c)(oose your body over my own?

Because w)(en it comes down to it, t)(e colour of our blood makes no difference. T)(e ones who strike first are t)(e ones w)(o survive.

I’m going to put some meaning into your pitiful existence. I’m going to make people see how powerful and rut)(less you can be. Your blood is a repulsive t)(ing… And I will cheris)( it more t)(an anyone else ever )(ad.

I’m doing you a favour. I’m doing w)(at you couldn’t do. Your own pride was your downfall, Sufferer. You )(ad your c)(ance to eliminate me, but you were too soft. I may )(ave a different body but my motivations )(aven’t c)(anged.

You’ve suffered enough)(. Now rest.

 

 _  
  
_

**  
**   
  
I )(ereby resign my position and power as )(er Imperial Condesce of Alternia and transfer all of my aut)(orities and rig)(ts to t)(e Sufferer, w)(o is in fact )(igher on t)(e caste system t)(an any ot)(er )(ig)(blood alive to t)(is day, including myself.  


Just as a royal-blooded Empress is )(atc)(ed every few )(undred sweeps, a scarlet-blood suc)( as t)(e Sufferer is )(atc)(ed every few t)(ousand. )(is power and capabilities )(ave been demonstrated in )(is large-scale revolt. Consider: )(e )(as been condemned at birt)( as a mutant, deprived of all t)(e rig)(ts of even a lowblood, yet )(e still managed to turn the tides against us and even put )(is sickle against my t)(roat.  


  
I can feel not)(ing but weakness and )(umiliation in w)(at )(e was able to do, but at t)(e same time it )(as opened my eyes to )(ow lowly we )(ave underestimated his genetics. T)(e only explanation as to w)(y )(e was able to best us is because )(e )(as, in fact, t)(e )(ig)(est blood on t)(e )(emospectrum. )(e revolted to s)(ow us w)(at )(e was capable of; )(e was able to sway and control a large number of lowbloods to give t)(eir lives for )(im.

  
My suicide will be a symbol of my consent to )(is rule. It is t)(e only way I can atone for my wrongs. T)(e Imperial guard is expected to obey )(im as t)(ey would obey t)(eir late Empress, in my dying name...   
**  
_  
_   
**

It was pure nonsense. But she knew for a fact that it would not be ignored, much less obeyed. The council will not overlook a signed Imperial parchment written on in her handwriting and her blood. And if it were found locked away in the Imperial Vault, her words would not be questioned. It would only make things easier for her to reclaim what was taken from her, and what a sight it would be when her people see her in the full.

 

 _  
_

What a sight it would be when they see that Alternia was being ruled by a scarlet-blooded emperor.

It gave her a reason to feel whole again, even more than she had been in her original body. Her mirror image was gone, the Sufferer was gone, but a part of him still remained. She saw his face everyday in the reflective pane, smiling back at her, telling her in his low, resentful voice that they were going to show those filthy lowbloods their place.

And nothing delighted her more. Because ultimately, when she saw his blood trickle down her skin, it reminded her of the fact they were more alike than they were different. Blood was the last thing that ever set them apart.

Because his blood was only a shade away from hers.

**Author's Note:**

> Lessons learned: never, EVER try to pull of something like this ever again. Especially all in one night. Phew.
> 
> For you mods out there:
> 
> Cliche: body swap  
> Team: Empress/Sufferer
> 
> More of a character study and conceptualization than anything. Rated mature just to be safe. Good night, and good luck.


End file.
